Winkle fine tunes lifting magnets.

Winkle Industries, Alliance, Ohio, has launched its newest lifting magnet for the scrap industry. The 68-inch magnet out lifts the company's earlier models, sometimes lifting on par with Winkle's 71- or 72-inch units.

"Our investment in 3D Finite Element Analysis is now paying big dividends for our customers," Winkle President Joe Schatz says. "We did not want to be just another magnet supplier to this industry or any other industry. There is a lot of science that goes into this business, and we wanted to bring it out."

Winkle Engineer Mike Conn says that the industry's transition from cable cranes to hydraulic material handlers calls for a change in magnet design, with magnets typically using 50 percent duty cycles. "These machines move much faster than the old machines. Now, to maximize their investment, scrap yards require 75 percent or higher duty cycles without burning up," Conn says.

Winkle's new magnets were designed with customer input. According to the company's research, customers are looking for lighter magnets that have a greater depth of field, reaching farther into the pile to move more with each lift.

The company says its new 68-inch magnets provide the comparable lifting capacity of a 72-inch magnet and weigh about 1,500 pounds less.

Winkle says three years of research and development have gone into the new magnet. "Furthermore, we are now taking the result from our research and are applying it to the rest of our product line," Schatz says.

Winkle Industries manufactures engineered components for industrial lifting and materials handling equipment.

More information is available online at www.winkleindustries.com.